Five Things To Note From Serie A This Weekend

Although not all of the Serie A matches have been played, I’ve still decided to write about the nine matches which were played. Tomorrow AC Milan will face Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo, and it’ll be interesting if they can take advantage of Inter Milan’s draw against Sampdoria. But first, here’s five things to note from this weekend’s Serie A action.

1. Inter Milan aren’t incisive

Inter Milan hosted Sampdoria at the San Siro, and while I predicted a 3-1 win for the nerazzurri, the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Altough Rafa Benitez’s team kept possession, and were able to pass the ball around well, they created few notable chances in the first half. And the more they passed around, the more I realized that they weren’t going to be able to win the match. Inter just ominously lurked around Sampdoria’s penalty area, but they didn’t create many dangerous moments, and they were eventually punished when Sampdoria scored to take the lead in the 62nd minute. Chivu got the ball stolen from him by Cassano, and then Guberti finished Cassano’s cross to beat Julio Cesar. Inter Milan finally grabbed a goal with Samuel Eto’o tapping in a cross, but they were unable to find a winner. Coutinho was their main source of inspiration and danger, and if Benitez doesn’t get the rest of the team shooting on net, then Inter could have some trouble next week against Genoa.

2. Even Krasic’s dive can’t help Juventus score

After Juventus played out a 0-0 draw against Bologna, it was the third match this season where the bianconeri haven’t scored. Although they have the best attack in the league with 16 goals scored so far, they haven’t spread them out over their matches very well. Against Bologna they created chances, the best one coming when Krasic’s blatant dive in the box was awarded with a penalty. Iaquinta stepped up to take it, and the ever-improving Viviano parried to make sure Bologna earned their point from this match. Krasic’s dive was atrocious, and a yellow card should’ve been given to the Serbian winger, it’s interesting seeing such a great player showing that he has a little bit of evil in him.

3. Lazio continue winning to go five points clear

Lazio won 2-1 against Cagliari this weekend, and this win is their fourth in a row, which is part of a streak of seven unbeaten games. And while I credit this success to Edy Reja’s fantastic coaching skills, I should also credit the team which is playing well. Floccari and Mauri scored the goals for Lazio, and those two players were fantastic throughout the match. Mauri provided the assist for Floccari, and it was Hernanes who provided Mauri the assist for his goal. Now the question must be asked: are Lazio title contenders? Share your thoughts below!

4. Chievo in fourth spot with win over Cesena

I was worried for Chievo when Mimmo Di Carlo left them to go coach Sampdoria, but Sergio Pioli has done a fantastic job with the club, taking them up to fourth place in the table. Chievo are just six points off of the table leaders Lazio after their 2-1 win over Cesena. Cesar scored first for Chievo, a wonderful running header into the top corner of Cesena’s goal, but the newly-promoted side equalized at halftime. An unlucky own goal from Guana, who had Jimenez’s shot flick off of his foot, and into the back of Chievo’s net for the equalizer. Chievo grabbed the winner in the final minutes of the match, a goalmouth scramble from a corner finished with Thereau slamming in the winner, which gives Chievo three important points.

5. Roma and Parma are doing very badly

Last season both Parma and Roma finished wonderfully, but it seems like a whole different story this season. Roma and Parma faced each other at the Stadio Ennio Tardini in Parma, and although there were plenty of chances to go around, neither side scored. Although you could say that a point for each side isn’t a bad result, both sides had a wealth of chances which should’ve been scored. For Parma Marques flipped the ball over the bar in front of an open net, and for Roma Julio Baptista had a chance with four teammates to pass to in front of goal, and he laid it off to nobody. Right now Roma is 14th with nine points, and Parma are 20th with only seven points. I expected better from both sides, we’re going to have to see whether these two teams will pick themselves up, or continue to sink. What are your thoughts? Share your comments below!

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12 Comments

David HOctober 25, 2010

Inter have turned into a lopsided team. Sneijder & Maicon — if they come back to form so will Inter.

Iaquinta taking the penalty? It is to laugh. Some day Del Neri will learn that it pays to have Del Piero on the field more often than not. In fact, why would you *ever* choose Iaquinta over Del Piero? Madness.

Roma are doing badly, but still only 6 points behind Inter. And they’ve had terrible, terrible luck with injuries. And they don’t have a big enough squad for CL & Serie A. If they don’t get too far behind before Xmas they can still climb the table in the spring. I hope.

Chievo just have great upper management. It’s the only explanation. They have an analog in Germany — Mainz.

The Juve game was quite the disappointment. I actually got a chance to see the game (living in America I often don’t) so I paid close attention. Early on, I really thought it was going to be a lopsided rout going the way of Juventus. Amauri just missed on a couple headers and by some stroke of luck, a defender managed to clear the ball after Krasic along with a couple others moved deep into the box. I figured it was a matter of time before the goals started pouring in. Turns out, I was staring at a black cloud that never intended on bringing rain.

Amauri getting hurt didn’t help. Del Piero warming the bench also did nothing for our attack. Why on earth Iaquinta took that penalty I will never know. That was a self inflicted wound. Our defense didn’t look great, I certainly expected them to look better. I’m not worried about the attack, that was just a string of bad luck so I don’t expect many more outings like that. It should be a good season but they have a real test next week against Milan.

Well, in an interview Chiellini said that Juventus took a step forward with this result, but they’d have liked to have taken a bigger step. There’s certainly plenty of potential there, and when Juve begins to score more goals (and not have Iaquinta take penalties), they’ll make the fourth spot for sure.

Imagine if one of those chances were scored, and Iaquinta had scored the penalty, people would be saying it was another good display from Juventus. I think that they just need to learn how to win ugly.

As for David and Christian, while I don’t think Roma will sink to the Serie B, I think that it’ll be a good season if they make it to the top half of the table.

You’re right David, they have a very weak squad, and this was shown when they were humiliated in the Champions League 3-1 by FC Basel. Let’s hope that Roma can manage to get out of the group so that Italian sides have a little more dignity in European competition.

I think one of Roma’s main problems is that they don’t have much pace in the team something which Menez was giving them in abundance last season. The situation that usually occurs is either Borriello or Totti will pick the ball up on the half way line and when they turn towards goal and more often than not there is not an option making the run to go beyond the defence.
As for Baptista pass, I just can’t understand his thinking. He did so well to create the space and get into that position, but he doesn’t even seem to look to where the player is.

For having 10 men for most of the game Napoli put in a lot of effort and probably deserved a point from the game. If it had remained 11 vs 11 then I think Napoli would have created some clearer opportunities and won the game.